A Dark Day

There are dark days in history. Usually they dawn without a hint of
being anything but ordinary…yet end with everybody knowing the day’s
events won’t be forgotten. Sadness and anger, in fact, can remain
even after those who actually lived the dark day are gone. Historians
can help…by examining what led to the tragedy, and why those events
hold so much meaning afterwards. A dark day in South Dakota history
happened on December 29, 1890.

It
was winter, but the day dawned sunny, warm, and still along Wounded
Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota. The people of Big Foot, a
Minneconjou chief, came into contact with the U. S. Army’s Seventh
Cavalry the day before. Big Foot and his people were far from their
home to the north - the Cheyenne River Reservation.

All that fall and early winter, settlers across
western South Dakota feared American Indians were planning to leave
their reservations and attack ranches and towns. Newspapers ran
stories reporting danger. Colonel James Forsyth of the Seventh
Cavalry knew Big Foot’s journey off the reservation would scare some
South Dakotans, even though the group certainly was no war party. Big
Foot had about 350 people with him, including many women and
children. About a hundred were men who could be considered warriors.
Many of those men had guns…and Forsyth told Big Foot his people had to
turn over all weapons and then go directly to Pine Ridge, which was 17
miles away. So the morning of December 29, Big Foot’s people handed
over guns, knives, axes, and even crow bars.

But Forsyth believed more guns remained hidden
under blankets the people wrapped themselves in against the winter
chill. Forsyth told Big Foot everyone would have to line up and show
they had no hidden weapons. One Minneconjou man pulled a rifle from
under his blanket…and said no one had a right to take it without
making fair payment. Tension grew…and a shot rang out, and then
another and more until all that could be heard was the roar of
gunfire. Among the first to die was Big Foot. Eighty-four
Minneconjou men, 44 women, and 18 children died that day. More were
wounded, and some of them died from those wounds later. Thirty-one of
the 470 Cavalry soldiers were killed. The Battle at Wounded Knee
wasn’t considered a victory and became known as the Massacre at
Wounded Knee.